


It Was Always You

by pariahsdream



Category: Marvel, Marvel 616
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Challenge Response, M/M, Minor Canonical Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Vacation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 23:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11611203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pariahsdream/pseuds/pariahsdream
Summary: Spideytorch fic bits that need to go somewhere.  Some may get turned into actual fic (no promises but the Space Princes kinda wanted itself to be that at some point).  Will be updated irregularly as the muse wills/time permits.





	1. What's a Matter-Horn Baby

Apparently once you get adopted in the Fantastic Family, you stay adopted. At least, that’s what Jen explained to him and sort of explained why- native New Yorker that he is- Pete is across the country in Disneyland with the Richards kids, Artie, Leech, Bentley, and all the rest of the scattered children not discounting Johnny himself. Thankfully, they do have backup with Jen and Wyatt, who the Moloids seem to be tolerating on her sake.

Pete pauses outside of the entryway, shading his eyes. Much as he hates to admit it, Disneyland does really look... well happy. It’s weirdly clean and weirdly staffed by very helpful people. 

“So, who do you think came up with Doombots first- ole Walt or Victor?” Pete drawls as he sidles up to Johnny as he helps Valerie decide the battle plan for the day.

“Maybe he’s a cousin,” Johnny muses, though he takes it back when Franklin looks worried. “I’m sure everyone here is really a nice person who isn’t brainwashed or anything. Just happy people.”

Valerie is trying to pretend that she’s not as excited as everyone else but she’s hiding it poorly; she scrambles as quickly as the rest do to get close to the parades and get into the lines for Snow White’s Scary Adventures and Space Mountain. They did have to act quickly to prevent a hostile takeover of Tarzan’s treehouse though. 

“I’ve swung up one side and down the other of Manhattan- how can this place feel so huge?” he complained halfway past noon, carrying Bentley in one arm and way, way too many sparkly tiaras, spinners, balloon animals and pins. So many pins. Why with the pins?

“You’re just hungry,” Johnny laughs, switching out Tong to Wyatt as he offers to take Bentley. Pete hands him the toys and various things instead- Johnny attaches a tiara to his hair at a rakish angle.

“Dashing,” Pete drawls, eyes crinkling up fondly in spite of himself. In the distance they can see the bobsleds.

“I’m going to see about whether this would make a good base of operations for when I take over the world. Don’t eat my pickle popcorn,” Bentley informs them before running off to plot with Valerie or whatever. Pete’s tired and hungry enough to decide that he’s going to let that be someone else’s problem for the moment.

“C’mere, you got to try these,” Johnny coaxes him away from the family, leading him to a nearby food cart that smells of oil, sugar and deliciousness. Johnny pays for two churros but instead of handing over the delicious fried goodness, he holds them out of reach. The grin on his face does Things to Pete. “Uh uh. Think we need to entertain ourselves for a bit.”

“How so?” He asks, smirking as he tries to wind an arm around Johnny’s back to steal a churro.

Ducking out of reach again, Johnny’s eyes flick up to the Matterhorn and then back to his own, challenging. “Wanna race?”

“Here?” Pete replies, surprised. There’s a part of him that’s already feeling mischievous... okay, a large part of him. “To the top?”

“You’re on Spidey,” Johnny laughs and takes off into the crowd before Pete can say anything. He laughs and darts around the other direction. It takes him half a second to find a likely place to start leapfrogging his way up one side of the Matterhorn. From the sounds of the startled shouts, Pete knows that Johnny’s already flamed on and is probably speeding his way up on the other side. 

“Two can play at this game,” Pete mutters as he slips out a webshooter from his backpack. He swings up even quicker than before and prays that none of the people on the ride can see him or at the least think he’s some sort of ridiculous stunt man instead of a friendly neighborhood (sort of) Spider-Man. 

They land at roughly the same time but Pete still holds up his arms in victory. “Still faster than you!”

“Whatever, I let you win because you’re getting close to being hangry and nobody enjoys that,” he mocks as he flops down on the top of the manmade mountain. They can see almost the entire park from there and Pete joins him, bumping shoulders. Johnny graciously hands over one of the churros to him in defeat.

“Mmmm, this is exactly what I needed,” he groans happily.

“Doubt your doctor thinks so.”

“Your sister is my doc.”

“I’m already laughing at your next exam,” Johnny teases, grinning with lips dusted with sugar. Pete leans in and steals a kiss.

“Mmmm, guess I’ll have to figure out a way to work off all this fat and grease,” he says when they break apart.

“Well we could always race to the top of Splash Mountain. Or we can catch a ride on top of the Monorail and enjoy some alone time,” Johnny waggles his eyebrows with that daring look in his bright eyes that’s always gotten Pete in trouble (but now in the most delightful ways).

“Torchy, now that sounds like the best idea you’ve had.”


	2. Space Princes 1/??

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This (and the following ones set in the same verse) were originally done for Spideytorch Week over on Tumblr. I kinda wanted to expand on what I have here but Idk, maybe. In any case, please enjoy shenanigans here.

“In other news, the newly betrothed Peter Parker the first and Prince Johnny of Fantasik are scheduled to have their first joint dinner in two solar days! What will come of this unlikely duo? Stay tuned to find out as we stick with the biggest wedding story since-”

_Click._

“This is not how I imagined my life turning out,” Peter muses- mostly to himself because his dearest friend is not listening to him in the slightest.

“I’m pretty sure no one could come up with your life on purpose,” MJ agrees absently as she flicks through the seven hundred billion information stations he now has access to as prince. Prince Peter Parker the First. Definitely not how he imagined his life in his wildest dreams. “If someone wrote the story of your life, it would be called unrealistic.”

“It is. I still think I’m being used in place of the real prince,” he grumbles. “Wish the paperwork wasn’t real too.”

MJ smirks and sits up. “Hey, isn’t that your fiance? Boy, he gets around.”

Pete can’t seem to stop himself from looking up- and yes, Prince Johnny of Fantastik is on the screen. He’s still stupidly beautiful even draped over the Kree bouncers hauling him out of a club it looks like. He’s dressed in something impossible to figure out and certainly very fashionable (probably, Pete has no clue) that seems to shift between blues and oranges as the light hits him. Pete kind of wants to hit him too just for being so gorgeous.

“How is this even going to work?” Pete groans as he leans back against his chair. It beeps at him to tell him his posture is inappropriate for optimal work efficiency and he contemplates tossing it out a window. “He’s some rich party boy that doesn’t have a thought in his head!”

“You don’t know that,” MJ defends, mildly. “You haven’t even met him yet. It might just be bad press.”

Pete slumps against the desk and hides his face against his crossed arms. That’s not entirely true; he has met Johnny once but as Spider-Man, far before all this prince nonsense became a thing. He’d just been your friendly neighborhood vigilante trying to nobly work outside a corrupt system- okay, maybe more along the lines of he’d been a teenager with too much anger and too much power to know really what to do with himself.

If Pete’s being fair, he has to admit to himself that he’d been struck by Johnny then. He and the rest of the First Family were explorers certainly but they also believed in stepping in when their help was needed. That drive had created something amazing- a whole world devoted to science and learning and helping as many civilizations as they could. Who wouldn’t be star-struck?

And Johnny was his age and seemed so much more together. He’d traded Pete quip for quip and made him laugh (begrudgingly because Pete was territorial on his best days). He was a shining beacon as much for his personality as for his powers, startlingly so, especially to Pete who’d never really been drawn to other people before. He’d been a (relatively) happy loner orphan who knew the universe loved to chew people up and spit them out.

The Johnny he’d met then seemed completely impervious to that idea- but what if he wasn’t? What if Johnny was just as fallible? Just as likely to be beaten down by life?

No. He was just a spoiled prince enjoying all the decadence that life and the universe had to offer. Pete had to keep that in mind so he wouldn’t think that a guy so amazing could want to have more than a political alliance. Besides, Pete was juggling a lot of danger in his life, keeping his new spouse out of as much as he could seemed like the smartest option. 

And he certainly didn’t want to be the means by which the Universe tried to break something so incredible.


	3. Space Princes 2/??

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note,[this exchange](https://pariahsdream.tumblr.com/post/157714487241/traincat-pariahsdream-traincat-ff-20) I picture happening before this next part but I didn't include it because Traincat wrote most of it, I just tagged along.

“I’m not wearing that.”

Johnny rolls his eyes. Of course Peter would object to wearing something that had been made in the last decade. He looked like an escapee from one of Reed’s intern programs most of the time, strong fingers covered in gunk, the collars of his shirts always stretched out and showing off a hint of surprisingly firm chest, and don’t get him started on the hair that’s long enough to just grab and--

He’s losing the plot. Johnny yawns and stretches on the couch he’s been lazing on for forty-five minutes. 

“Look, you’re new to this, I get it,” he drawls, picking up a piece of fruit the Shi’ar Majestrix had sent as part of the goodwill gift. “Part of the whole being-a-prince-thing is looking like one.”

Peter gets a mutinous expression in his eyes that Johnny isn’t sure he finds obnoxious or attractive. Maybe both. “This isn’t looking like a prince, this is getting thrown in some ridiculous costume and looking like-”

“Like what?” Johnny stands, arching his brows as he saunters closer. He feels marginally better when he notices Peter’s eyes dropping to his hips where the gold tassels dangle off of him just so. “Like me?”

Peter snorts and lifts up a sleeve that’s a long drape of deep blue woven with small red crystals that get more dense the further down the material. It’s a bit much but he can’t deny that it’s a step up from Peter’s usual. “Don’t pretend you’re insulted. I mean, this isn’t me. I don’t wear all this-” he yanks on the material and before Johnny can cry at the sacrilege, it rips and lands in a pile at their feet.

“Philistine.”

“It’s pointless!”

“No it isn’t,” Johnny retorts and picks up the fabric. “It’s about showing you can stand up in the big boy leagues with the Shi’ar and Skrulls and Kree, not even talking about Latveria or the Inhumans. If you look like a hobo, they’re going to think your planet is an easy target.”

“So what explains Namor’s get up?” Pete’s giving him a skeptical look through the mirror as Johnny steps up behind him. Peter’s shoulders are surprisingly broad for a guy who’s only so-so. And maybe showing that off is a better idea than all that extra fabric.

Johnny snorts. “Intimidation maybe?”

There’s a ghost of a smirk on Peter’s lips and Johnny can’t help but grin wider in reply. He feels uncharacteristically generous, meeting Peter’s hazel eyes in the mirror. “Clothes maketh the man.”

“Are you quoting something?”

“Shush. I mean, think about it, you wear specific clothes for specific jobs, right?” Johnny points out, letting his hands dance over his shoulders, resisting the urge to trail down his biceps. Instead he pinches his shoulder. “You wear a labcoat when you disappear with Reed for hours and I wear my coveralls when I head down to work on my speeders. How is this any different?”

Peter narrows his eyes at him but it’s not in an antagonistic fashion, it’s more thoughtful. Like he’s actually listening to Johnny. “But that’s practical. It’s not the same.”

“Sure it is. You wouldn’t wear your labcoat to a state dinner.”

“....”

“Correction- you won’t be wearing a labcoat.” Johnny can’t help but rest his chin on Peter’s shoulder and urges him with his eyes. “Trust me on this, okay? I know this part. You wear something sleek and formal and they won’t treat you like a kid who doesn’t know what he’s doing. They’ll treat you like you deserve to be there.”

There’s a strange sort of conflict in Peter’s eyes when he meets Johnny’s through the mirror and Johnny wants to dig it out of him. This guy is far more complicated than he first gave him credit for and it’s annoying. Almost as annoying as the quirk of Peter’s bushy dark brows. “Okay then, explain that one,” he points to a nearby tablet with Johnny’s image still on the screen. He’s wearing some neon thigh-highs, pointy-toed boots and a sarong. 

“That’s advanced level stuff, I don’t have to explain it to you,” the blond sniffs. Peter actually grins at him and it’s completely unfair that a guy that should by all accounts be only so-so somehow manages to make his heart bungee jump out of his chest.

“Fine, I’ll get MJ to explain it to me,” Peter replies, rather good-natured. He’s still pulling off the top portion of his robes until he’s clad in a simple, crisp undershirt with a high collar. It exposes his arms and Johnny would normally be focused on that but--

“Wait, you don’t mean Mary Jane do you?”

Peter has the balls to try to look innocent. “Oh yeah, did I forget to mention we grew up together?”

Johnny very maturely throws a pillow at his head, flopping dramatically over the couch. “Can’t believe you’ve known a super model since you were in diapers and still can’t dress yourself,” he mutters.

“She wasn’t a super model when we were in diapers. Though she did make bibs look like the very height of toddler chic,” he drawls, absently attempting to tame his hair.

Johnny leans forward to watch, out of morbid fascination, and makes a noise in his throat. “Hey, is it true about her and Spider-Man?”

Peter drops his comb and bends over to snap it up quickly. His eyes don’t meet Johnny’s anymore but he does seem to be concentrating hard on taming his hair. “Uh, you mean, did they date?... Yeah for a while. I wasn’t really involved so-”

Johnny’s lips pout out into a little disappointed bow. “Too bad. If you’re going to spend all your time with Reed, I could at least gain some fashionable and mysterious new friends out of the deal.”

“I don’t spend all my time- what do you mean, you want to hang out with Spider-Man?” Peter seems incredulous. “He’s got a pretty bad rep,” he adds, a skeptical frown marring his face. Almost like he can’t believe it.

“But he’s got that butt,” Johnny smirks. “Besides, my last boyfriend had one too- a bad rep that is.”

Granted that was definitely deserved. Standing up again with a glance at the clock, Johnny crosses to Peter and hooks their arms together. “Time’s up, you’re as respectable as you’re going to get. Remember- don’t let Ben goad you into an eating contest.”

Peter rolls his eyes but Johnny can feel his gaze linger on his profile. He doesn’t have time to consider why- after all, they have an engagement party to attend.


	4. Space Princes 3/???

One of the big reasons that Peter eventually gave in and accepted the marriage was the opportunity to work with both Dr. Richards and Dr. Storm. They were on the foremost of innovation and exploring all the possibilities available to them in this universe (and supposedly a few others). It was a dream come true.

It just... well it never occurred to him that he’d miss his husband.

At first things had been very awkward and borderline antagonistic between them. There had even been a bit of an escalating prank war that had only paused when the Royal family had been called away to a nearby star system to help deal with an ecological disaster. They’d been gone for nearly a month and.... Well, Peter _missed_ Johnny.

“You just miss good food,” Pete mumbles to himself as he reviews more of the reports Harry said he couldn’t leave off anymore. Honeymoon period over and all that. Except, he hadn’t had one- there had been no long days in bed, enjoying learning every inch of a golden body, or getting up in the middle of the night to eat leftovers in the kitchen and tease each other about drippy sauces. There had been no quiet mornings just basking in anything like what a relationship ought to be.

Hell, he and Johnny had separate rooms. 

It’s not like he expected any different but Pete’s a bit chagrined to know that he wants it to be now. He’s not sure he’s cut out to marry someone without any feelings at all involved. Well, he can’t say there weren’t any feelings at all. Loathing was a feeling. 

“Really, Parker? Stop being such a whiner and deal with it,” he groans and rubs a hand over his face. The family’s scheduled to return in a couple days, he can figure out something to show to Johnny he wants more than just state-sponsored events in their future. At the very least... well, it’d be nice to be friends.

***

“Should be comin’ in fer a landin’ in five. Get all butts in the seats, your loveable blue-eyed C’ptain is bringing you home,” Ben drawls through the comm. Normally Johnny would be excited for a return. They always got crowds of people waiting patiently to see them and cheer them on. If there was an ego boost better than dozens of people screaming your name, Johnny hadn’t found it yet.

“Johnny?”

He glances up and sees Sue giving him that weird mix of suspicious older sibling and concerned mom that she’s perfected over the years. “What?”

“Are you alright? Normally you’re much more enthusiastic about greeting crowds,” She replies, ignoring the sullenness in his tone. 

“Of course I’m thrilled! I live for this, after all, why would anyone care about one stupid guy when you have hundreds of people thinking you’re the best thing in the galaxy, right?” Johnny replies, tossing his hair off his forehead. Peter had only comm’ed them one (them too, not Johnny) and it was to say he wasn’t going to be able to be there at the space docks.

“Peter is learning a lot of new duties still and he did say he was sorry,” Sue reminds him but Johnny isn’t interested in being humored. 

“Tch, he thinks it’s beneath him. Everything that’s not work is just-” he snaps his fingers, flames flicking out. “So if he doesn’t care, I don’t care.”

“Johnny-” Sue has that warning note in her voice but Johnny ignores it. They’ve made atmo so he decides to jump out of the ship and dive through the air, flames licking up his body and giving the crowds below a sight worth their time. He does lazy rings around the descending shuttle, purposefully wiggling his ass at Ben through the cockpit.

He stops abruptly, surprised. Across the near empty space port is a huge, delicately woven web glistening in the lights. It has a message smack in the middle of it that says simply, “WELCOME HOME FIRST FAMILY”. Johnny gapes.

“Do you see this? Can you believe it? Spidey was here!” He crows as Reed and Sue exit. He does a few excited loops, impressed that Spider-Man had even stopped by.

“Huh,” Ben cocks his head to the side. “Wonder what Webs is doing in this neck of the woods? Thought he was from Pete’s turf.”

Johnny lands next to him and flames off, grinning brightly to the crowd. “Peter knows him, or so he says.”

“I wonder if he asked him to give us a welcome since he couldn’t be here himself. That’s a thoughtful gesture,” Sue says pointedly as she waves, stepping off the ship and gently steering her husband as he continues to tap more notes onto his tablet. 

“Maybe Spidey’s just a fan of yours truly?” Johnny retorts, throwing a wink to the crowds. The sheer love that’s being directed towards them is like nothing else. He loves his family and loves his life- well most of it in any case. 

The feeling buoys him all the way back to the palace even as he anticipates a rather lackluster greeting from his ‘husband’. If even said husband is around. He’s very startled to walk into their section of the palace to find smoke billowing from the kitchens. Immediately Johnny flames on and dives for the fire- pulling heat and flames from the oven. He can hear someone coughing heavily but he doesn’t register that it’s Peter until he’s finished taming the heat. 

“What the heck are you doing in here?” He asks.

“Gee, what is a kitchen normally used for, flame-brain?” Peter retorts, looking grumpy and ruffled. His sleeves are rolled up to show off strong forearms but he’s utterly covered in... spatter of some kind.

“Most people use it for food, I have no idea what you were trying,” he shoots right back, wrinkling his nose at the smell coming from the stove. Whatever it was is sort of roundish and... leaking.

Peter flops against the counter and lets out a weird, half-defeated laugh. “I don’t know either. It was supposed to be a quiche, to, you know, welcome you home.”

Johnny blinks. “You tried to cook? For me?”

“Cooking is a lot more dangerous than I remember. Next time you’re getting fruit pies and pizza,” Pete grumbles but Johnny can’t help but grin. Pete had tried to do something really dumb just to make Johnny happy. It didn’t work and he was terrible at it, but he’d give him at least one point for the effort. 

“Fruit pies aren’t real food but I will take you up on a pizza. As long as you let the staff make it instead,” he smirks, leaning against the counter close enough that their shoulders are brushing.

“Tch, guy helps save a planet or two and suddenly gets demanding,” Pete tosses right back at him but oh, Johnny could do this all night. And yeah, Pete might be dingy and sweaty but this is the best welcome home he’d ever had.

“That and Spider-Man clearly has a massive crush on me.”

“Is that so?”


End file.
